Why does climate change make wildfires worse?

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In this Our Changing Climate environmental video essay, I look at why Australia, the Amazon, and the Central African Congo Basin is on fire. Specifically, I look at the scope and damages of the Australian fires for the 2019-2020 fire season and compare them to those of the Amazon and Congo fires. The video also delves into how climate changes influences and enhances the damage of wildfires and has lead to more intense fires across Australia and the Amazon. But this video essay also shows that the deregulation stances of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro are partly to blame for the increase of fires in their respective countries.

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Resources:

1. Congo Basin vs the Amazona tale of two forest fires (RFI)

2. Resilience and fire management in the Anthropocene (Gillson et al.)

3. Climate Change, Wildfires, Heatwaves and Health Impacts in Australia (Arriagada et al.)

4. Here’s Where Australia’s Destructive Wildfires Are Burning (NY Times)

5. Wildfire policies contribution to foster extreme wildfires (Fernandes et al.)

6. Worst bushfire conditions ever seenUnprecedented danger is ‘a firefighter’s nightmare’ (new.com.au)

7. Multicentury cooland warmseason rainfall reconstructions for Australia's major climatic regions (Freund et al.)

8. ‘This is Not Normal’Climate change and escalating bushfire risk (Climate Council)

9. The Global Extent and Determinants of Savanna and Forest as Alternative Biome States (A. Carla Staver, et al)

10. Australia fires8 things everyone should know about the bushfire disaster (Vox)

11. Amazon fires increase by 84% in one year space agency (BBC)

12. Australia fires have burned 46% more land than 2019 Amazon blazes (Insider)

13. CopernicusA year in fire (Atmosphere Monitoring Service)

14. The Amazon Is on Fire. So Is Central Africa. (NY Times)

15. Amazon tipping pointLast chance for action (Thomas Lovejoy and Carlos Nobre)

16. Deforestation soars, crowning Bolsonaro’s chainsaw strategy (Observatório de Clima)

17. Fires Threaten Australian Towns That Have Already Burned Once (NY Times)

18. Australia wildfiresHere's what you need to know about the deadly blazes (CNN)

19. Carbon emissions from Australian blazes near Amazon fire levels (Reuters)

20. A staggering 1 billion animals are now estimated dead in Australia’s fires (Vox)

21. Fire Effects and Management in African Grasslands and Savannas (Winston Trollope and Lynne Trollope)

22. Fire science for rainforests (Mark Cochrane)

23. Calculating Deforestation in the Amazon (Mongabay)

24. Longterm decline of the Amazon carbon sink (Brienen et al.)

25. The Amazon used to be a hedge against climate change. Those days may be over. (PRI)

26. Making Sense of Amazon Deforestation Patterns (NASA)

27. There’s no doubt that Brazil’s fires are linked to deforestation, scientists say (Science)

28Evolution of humandriven fire regimes in Africa (Archibald et al.)

29Congo Basin forest loss dominated by increasing smallholder clearing (Tyukavina et al.)

30Australia wildfiresPM Scott Morrison defends coal industry amid catastrophic blazes (Independent)

31. Fires are devouring the Amazon. And Jair Bolsonaro is to blame (The Guardian)

32. Why do they burn the 'bush'? Fire, rural livelihoods, and conservation in Zambia (Christine Eriksen)

#AmazonFire #AustraliaFire #CongoFire